Why you should visit Harrison, Idaho

I'm about to let you in on a secret. 

Well... maybe not. It's not news to you that I love Lake Coeur d'Alene, in northern Idaho. There are currently 14 posts with the tag "Cd'A", the abbreviation for Coeur d'Alene? I'm not exactly exclusive about my love for the giant lake. 

But let me tell you about my love for the little town of Harrison, Idaho. You might remember it from my posts about getting married there last summer. I'll recap our wedding, someday, but this post is devoted to a little town.

I'll only give you ten reasons, though I could go on and on.

It's the ugly stepsister to the city of Couer d'Alene, which is located at the north end of the lake along I-90. Harrison's location 45 minutes south of the interstate, and on the less-accessible east side of the lake makes the town more remote. More remote means Harrison remains an actual town; a geographical location where miners and loggers from across the area gather to purchase groceries and ice cream and drink at One Shot Charlie's Bar. It's an authentic place where the people are friendly.

Main Street, Harrison, ID.

 Gretchen, Dusty and I eating ice cream. 

Its beautiful. Want to disagree with me? Yeah...imagine yourself here and tell me that's hard to look at. .

The water-sports options are pretty sweet. Wanna go ski-boating? Head out onto the lake to go intertubing, wakeboarding and waterskiing. Take a jet-ski up the winding Coeur d'Alene River to see wildlife or fish. Or go up the St. Joe River, through Lake Chatcolet to the town of St. Maries, for dinner.Boats are available for rent here: Just wanna hang out on a beach? Try the city beach next to the boat launch. 

Multiple options to answer the where-to-stay question. Feel fancy? Stay at the Lakeview Lodge, where the manager Claire will bend over backwards to make you feel at home. Many rooms and suites have small kitchenettes, if you feel like cooking your own meal. Try the Osprey Inn or Wild Boar Bed and Breakfast. Or camp, at the City Campground right on the bike trail, or the State campground a mile or two north of town. Or, if you're planning on staying a while, try one of the many vacation rental houses around town. (Insider tip: my parents rent both their main house and "The Shack" out).

Hungry? Check out One Shot Charlie's Bar for food ("Best Dive bar on Lake Coeur d'Alene), or the Marina for fancier stuff. The Landing Restaurant is good too, and the The Creamery next door even has huckleberry ice cream. The Harrison Traders store has a deli for sandwiches, and basic foodstuffs in the aisles. (Insider tip: Harrison Traders also has doughnuts. AND a State of Idaho liquor license) (Insider tip #2: pair the huckleberry vodka with lemonade. Be careful, it's delicious and refreshing and deadly when you realize you've split an entire bottle with your friend Ali). 

Like to bike ride? Let me introduce you to the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes; a rails-to-trails program which stretches 85 miles from Mullan, Idaho (on I-90), down the CdA river, past it's mouth into Lake Coeur d'Alene in Harrison, then along the east side of the lake, across a former railroad bridge and up the hill to Plummer, Idaho. Harrison is about mile marker 15, and riding the trail is freaking AWESOME. I sprint out 25 mile bike rides every morning when we're there, in an effort to burn the drinking and food calories. 

Oh, you want to do more bike riding? How about riding another rails-to-trails program out of Kellog (1 hour from Harrison), The Route of the Hiawatha. Follow the old Milwaukee Road path on a 15 mile ride from Lookout Pass ski area (on the Montana/ Idaho border) through the headwaters of the St. Joe river. Let me tell you, this is some of the most rugged, remote, spectacular landscape in the United States. 

Going to be in Harrison for a while? Check out the public library to restock your pile o'books. Check out one of the summer concerts in the park, or a movie in the park, or one of the festivals like the Old Time Picnic or Car Show and Chili cookoff.

Nightlife? At the lake? I'll admit, nowadays I mostly want to finish dinner and enjoy a glass of wine on the deck while I read a book. But not so long ago, and occasionally still, I'll head down to One Shot Charlies or the Marina for cocktails and live music. One Shots is a family tradition, I even dragged D in there the day of our wedding (okay, for water, not a drink. It was too hot). The Marina has great live music on Saturday nights, and if the boats are lined up on the docks, you know it'll be a good night!

A little cultural tourism. There is a museum, City jail and walking tour brochure for the little town. 


All in all, Harrison is probably the best place in the world. 

Wedding photos, really quickly.

I meant to include these in yesterday's post, but couldn't get blogger to let me upload photos. 

My favorite, from El Weddingo:

All photos taken by my dear friend Anne Sherwood. 

July 8 Friday Farming

We returned from our 4th of July trip to Coeur d'Alene to a farm/ garden which EXPLODED in the 6 days I was gone. I was shocked! I'm grateful to my cousin, who stayed at our house while in town for a wedding, for  keeping everything watered. It would have been wilt-city without the water!

The kitchen porch is looking good. All of the irises are done blooming but I'm still debating as to when to start snipping back the leaves. I kind of like the vertical-spiky visual effect they give off. 

I planted pansies in with this trailing lobelia. The pansies can't quite keep up...

Twist and Shout hydrangea blossom!

"Fern Gully" has totally exploded too. DJ did a little happy dance the other night when he realized that every single plant came back this year. I want to plant more ferns; those things are cool.

The driveway bed is doing okay.

I finally transplanted the only start of a snapdragon that I've successfully grown all year. Sigh. Starting plants yourself is so much cheaper than buying them... if only I could actually start them successfully!

These larkspur were also transplanted from seed.

The delphinium looks good, I think.

The bee balm is doing well, with exception of the spots in them. I'm not sure what those are from; aphids, maybe?

The same bug is munching on my oregano too!

Mmmmm oregano. I can't wait to try out our food dehydrator later this summer and have garden-fresh-dried herbs for fall cooking.

The cilantro has totally gone to seed, which makes it coriander. I've got a few recipes which call for coriander, so I'll let this plant keep growing.

Raspberries! MMMM!

Purple basil, transplanted.

This chrysanthemum plant has totally exploded! It's bigger than the burning bush! And in the process, I'm afraid it's shading the peppers planted behind it. I'll observe over the weekend, and either transplant the peppers or, more likely, trim back the chrysanthemum. 

MMM peppers!

Check it out! we have a tiny little pepper growing!

Here are my starts. Again. Starts. In July. Yeesh. Zinnias on the bottom left, more larkspur in the middle, and marigolds at the back. Somewhere in there are more basil and snapdragons. I've heard that snaps can reseed themselves, so hopefully this fall planting won't be a wasted effort.

To the left of the porch. Yep, they've started building a new house two lots over from ours. Yay! Less weeds! The area immidiately adjacent to the steps has been kept clear, with the idea that we'll plant some kind of evergreen bush there this fall. Mid summer is less than ideal for transplanting. And I don't really feel like digging a hole in clay soil when it's 90 degrees out.

More peppers.

Powerbox bed. I'm inclined to transplant something, maybe the bee balm or ecchinacea I started from seed, into the front of this bed along the sidewalk. I also need to build a trellis this weekend for the sweet peas.

I might transplant that little bee balm again. It's already been moved from under the hammock to here, and it might move to along the sidewalk next. The grass and daylilly are overpowering the bee balm.

I do like the grass though!

And between the power boxes that Russian Sage is getting going. Next summer it'll be as big as the fountain grass.

Ecchinacea coneflower, from seed. I'll transplant it to either the powerbox bed, or... maybe where the larkspur are along the driveway. Or into the rocks on the right side of the driveway.

Did I tell you we bought a patio set? I love Costco! The only kicker is that our back deck is on the northwest side of our house, and gets full late afternoon sun. Ie, it's HOT in the evening. I vacillate between planting a taller shrub, like a crabapple hedge, and just waiting until they build a house next door to see what happens.

I wonder when gladiolus bloom?

Garage bed. The clematis is out of trellis. I'm tempted to string more... string, or a metal fishing line or something, up to the rafters under the garage so that the plant can keep growing. Maybe this weekend.

Lilly!

The goofy thing about clematis is that until it leafs out, I can't tell if a blossom is more leaves or a blossom. I haven't seen hide nor hair of an actual purple blossom yet... And yes, there is a spider in this picture!

And now, the farm. Sigh. I'm learning a lot this year. I'm a MUCH better farmer than I was last year, but definitely haven't perfected this yet. Of course, it doesn't help when you have to contend with the GD gophers, or when the contractors building a house two lots down SET FIRE to a debris pile last Wednesday. When it was 93 degrees. With buffeting 20-30 mph winds. Which were blowing towards our house. Yeah... the burlap around the bottom of the garden caught on fire, and it scorched a coupe of potato plants and the zucchini. Who the blue fuck SETS FIRE in the city limits on a hot and windy day and then leaves their SET FIRE totally unattended?

Good news: juliet tomatoes beginning to set!

Bad news: the gophers got to the lettuce again. I give up on in-ground lettuce. Henceforth, it shall be a potted plant.

The little bastards also trimmed the carrots.

Which are actually growing back quite quickly.

Good news: the red onions are rocking it!

So-so news: the Walla Walla sweets aren't really thriving...

Good news: the bell peppers back here are doing well.

This one even has bloom buds on it!

Is eggplant supposed to be bigger by this point?

All of these Roma tomatoes are rocking out. Some have blossoms on them. I have a question for you though... talk to me about pruning tomatoes? to increase tomato size? How do I know how much is too much? Which do I trim and which do I keep?

I have memories of my parents growing onions from seed, which were great for throwing in salads and stuff. I can't seem to make mine grow.

The summer squash also has blossoms on it!

Remember earlier when I said the contractor for the house next door STARTED A FIRE? Yeah... it got into the dried grass mulch I use.

It also burned the zucchini plant back. Thankfully, the little bugger is stubborn and growing back.

Marigold, direct seeded into the ground after the last frost.

Pumpkin!

I considered hilling the potatoes before we left for the 4th of July, but got lazy. You're supposed to hill them when they blossom, right? Well, we got back and the things had grown a FOOT in a week. I was busy on Tuesday night hauling dirt and compost by the 5 gallon bucket full.  I'll add another few rounds this weekend.

Spaghetti squash.

The peas also exploded last week.

See this little  pea pod? I ate him right after I took the photo. Peas for breakfast!

Hey, I just noticed the blossoms on the spaghetti squash!

Where's the corn, you ask? Well, I'd like to know too! I planted something like 3 rounds of corn, saw a few shoots, and now nothing. I think the gophers are eating it before it can get established. Darn, I was looking forward to sweet corn this summer. 

Things are chugging along! Right now it's a contest to keep things well watered during the really hot days, without over watering. While I've learned a lot this year, I'm really pleased with my progress as a farmer!